Cardiff 'protected' by new deal for ambitious Salech

Brian Barry-Murphy says Cardiff City have protected themselves by tying down top scorer Yousef Salech, admitting the striker has ambitions to be at the "highest level in Europe".

Salech's goals have helped the Bluebirds to the top of the League One table as they aim for an instant return to the Championship.

Cardiff boss Barry-Murphy – who remains keen on adding new signings this January – says the 24-year-old's 12 goals this season will have attracted attention.

But by extending to 2030 an intitial contract that still had more than three years to run, the Bluebirds head coach says it is a signal of intent from the club.

"Obviously he's a player who's going to attract a lot of attention based on how well he's done previously - and how well he's doing currently," Barry-Murphy said of Salech, who first signed in a £3.5m deal from Swedish side IK Sirius a year ago.

"The club want to make sure that we're protected and show how much we value him - and the fact that he feels the same is very important."

Barry-Murphy is comfortable in knowing Salech is a very ambitious player.

"He's a very confident guy, and he backs that up with how hard he's working every single day to improve, because he knows he needs to improve," he added.

"He'll have designs on playing at the very highest level of European or English football and our job is to give him the platform to do that.

"We're all very confident and passionate about making him realise that ambition - and thankfully he feels that as well."

Barry-Murphy says he has not been made aware of any official approaches for Salech as the January transfer window enters its final stages.

The Cardiff boss, instead, remains keen to add to his promotion-chasing squad, but warned supporters movement might not come until close to the Monday, 2 February deadline.

"I've been pretty open about the areas of the team that we need to improve," he said.

"We believe the players will improve a lot in the second half of the season. That's probably why we don't feel as if we need to do a lot but we're still focused on improving the squad and not neglecting the fact that we want to push the club forward very aggressively, very quickly.

"So if the right players become available - which we think they will in the last week of the window - then hopefully we can improve the squad as well as remaining obsessively focused on our own players."

Cardiff are six points clear at the top of the League One table, with fourth-placed Stockport visiting Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday (12:30 GMT).